


Cyanide can taste of almonds, if you're not careful enough

by ThatOneGirlBehindYou



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Denial of Feelings, Friends With Benefits, Implied Murder, Light Angst, Light Bondage, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Partners in Crime, Varian and Hugo are 17 in this and they fuck so be careful, Villain Varian, sex with feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23834104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneGirlBehindYou/pseuds/ThatOneGirlBehindYou
Summary: Varian spends six months away from Caine's crew. His path crosses, if only for a moment, with what could've been his life.Varian makes a choice.Set in the same universe of(Like the moon) I'll sway the tide and lead you astray
Relationships: Hugo/Varian (Disney: Varian and the Seven Kingdoms)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 81





	Cyanide can taste of almonds, if you're not careful enough

**Author's Note:**

> Yooo guess who found out Varian has another boyfriend and HAD to write something for it?
> 
> This is a prequel set in the same universe of [(Like the moon) I'll sway the tide and lead you astray](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15837708/chapters/36881490) so it probably won't make much sense if you haven't read that one.

Varian prides himself on being firm on his decisions. He's made mistakes and he's taken the wrong path, but he prides himself on the sharpness of his mind, and he's never doubted his choices. 

Except for one time, of course.

\--------------------------------------------------

He's seventeen, and Caine docked the ship at their lair until new notice because a high profile raid went wrong and the entirety of the British Navy is at their tail, so they split with instructions to reconvene six months later.

Varian thinks of contacting Adira and Hector, taking them up on their offer to travel together at least until Caine's ready to regroup -he's invested too much time on the mutiny plan to just throw it overboard now-, but he discards the idea quickly enough. He's still not entirely comfortable around them, and how much they seem to love him. In the end, it's just Ruddiger and him travelling, as always. 

Avantion is an imposing kingdom for sure. The capital city is surrounded by thick black ramparts and emanating columns of white smoke into the sky. Even from atop one of the cliffs overlooking the city Varian can hear the heavy thrumming of machinery, and his heart soars with excitement.

It lasts only for as long as it takes him to get to the gates, when the two armed guards look him up and down and seem to find him lacking. Something Varian often counts on, but doesn't necessarily likes.

"What's your business in Avantion?" Asks the big mustachioed man on the left. He eyes Varian up and down, and Varian knows perfectly well he looks like a pirate, with the gold and silver earrings and earcuffs Zulka gave him, with the sunkissed skin, with the careful steps to compensate the rolling sea even after weeks on land.

Varian smiles. "Tourism."

"Don't look much like a tourist to me," says the man's companion, a slim woman that towers over Varian as she narrows her eyes at him.

"I wasn't aware one needed a signed letter to visit your beautiful city," Varian says in the slow, arrogant drawl his tutors trained into him. It's always funny to watch people struggle to make sense of this prince-tongued criminal. "But if I must prove my worth in gold, I will."

The guards look nervously at each other, and Varian smirks to himself. Which one will be the first to break, to give in to the temptation and let the other know that the two of them are no different from the rats they're meant to keep out? Varian loves giving people these choices. Watching them sink a bit deeper each time is fun.

"...fifty gold pieces," the woman says in the end. It's a ridiculously high amount of money just to enter a city, and she knows it. A last try at looking righteous, setting a price so high she can later tell her partner she didn't mean it, that she did it just to turn him away. 

Varian nods solemnly. "Very reasonable. I'll make it sixty, you two can split," and he tugs on one of the many coin purses on his person. This one he snatched off of a merchant's body last night, before sitting down at his campfire and helping himself to his food. He throws the bag at them, waits until the woman counts the pieces and delights in the way her eyes grow wider and wider until she looks back up at him. "I trust it's all there?" 

"I- this is-" the woman mumbles, mouth agape and hands shaking. 

"Go in," the man orders, voice rough and fists tight. "We'll see you in jail in a day or two I'm sure."

"It will be a delight to see you again I'm sure." Varian pats the man's chest as he walks past, and doesn't turn back at either his growling or the sound of him snatching the purse out of the woman's hands to count his cut of the bribe. 

The outer ring of the city... looks like shit.

Filthy beggars in rags, children running barefoot and mud-faced across the streets. An old man shakes with a rattling cough where he's balled up against a wall, and Varian sees a splash of red on his bony, liver-spotted hand when he wipes it across his lips.

Ahead and above, a tall white wall separates this pigsty from what Varian supposes are the upper echelons of the city. 

He's not terribly surprised, when a hand shoots down to clamp down on his shoulder and pull him into a dark alley as he walks by on his way to bribe a second set of guards. If anything, he feels sorry for this pickpocket that's about to find out they bit off more than they can chew.

"I saw you at the gates," says a deep voice pressed against Varian's ear. It's much more interesting than the knife at his throat. "Have money to throw around don't you?"

Varian rolls his shoulders in a slow, dismissive shrug. "I just might. But I fail to see why that's any of your business."

The voice chuckles darkly at Varian's ear. "Well, I just imagined... a smart-looking fella like you would be interested in making a donation to an aspiring genius."

And Varian feels an amused bark of laughter bubble at his throat. "Sounds reasonable. I'll keep it in mind in case I meet them."

"I don't want to hurt you. Just give me your gold." The man's voice becomes more serious, and Varian immediately knows he has the upper hand here. Whoever this man is, he's more scared of taking a life than he's willing to get his coin.

"Well that's a shame, you see?" Varian pouts, turning slowly to give the man behind him a look at his mock repentant face. His would be robber is a young man, his age probably, with a shock of blond hair tied on a knot at the top of his head, and bright green eyes starting to take on a slight hue of confused panic. "The thing here is... I _do_ want to hurt you."

And that's when Ruddiger hops out from his jacket and onto the man's face.

He doesn't kill the guy in the end. 

Mostly because Varian is not stupid and he knows the best way to find a shortcut to the upper ring is to mix with the bad crowds, but also because it's a little fun to watch him try to get Ruddiger off his face.

Then there's the fact that when Varian straddles him to lay his would-be-robber's dagger against his neck, the guy looks up at him like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time, and Varian decides right then and there that he wants more. 

\--------------------------------------------------

It's been two weeks since he arrived in Avantion, and Varians time has been well spent. During the day he walks around the Alabaster ring -this kingdom has pompous names for their class disparity-, figuring out the guard's schedules and the less watched points, pouring some reactives over the blocks of white stone, which will cause a very nice distraction in a few days. During the night... he does other things.

"Hm. You know something?" Varian rolls his hips slow and deliberately, enjoying the way Hugo's belly trembles, the sheen of sweat on his tanned skin almost reflecting the light of the oil lamps around them.

Hugo, with his arms tied above his head and biting desperately at the length of rope between his teeth as he tries -not too effectively, because Varian is a _sailor_ and he'd be better off breaking the bedframe than escaping the knots at his hips- to buck up into Varian, is not really in a position to answer. 

"If you didn't waste what you steal on decorating this ridiculous rathole, you'd probably be at the Alabaster ring by now. On your way to the Gold ring, even," Varian continues. Hugo's dick shifting inside him is heavenly, but he's already come a couple times, he can wait. "The King's inventor, up at the Diamond ring, probably."

As much as he enjoys monologuing, Hugo makes the best noises when he's aroused and trying to form conscious thoughts, so Varian reaches forward and gives a knot the slightest pull, to let the rope fall loose enough that Hugo can just spit it out.

"Va- please, _please_ ," he begs, and Varian laughs in delight before he starts moving faster. Hugo has been good, he's earned it. "Y- you like this place."

"It's got charm," Varian nods, "for a thief's hiding hole."

He _loves_ the place. It's a mix between a trophy room and a laboratory. Hugo has filled the little room in the dilapidated-looking house with colored oil lamps fancy drapes and little golden baubles, his designs and inventions left lying around half finished as he runs out of materials and has to debate on whether or not to sell some of his treasures. Varian feels right at home amongst the chaos. Maybe he would've had something like this, if things had gone right. 

"So you like it," Hugo insists, though his voice is more a grunt than actual words at this point.

"Hmmm... Get me a place in the upper levels, I'll like it even better," Varian briefly considers edging him for a bit longer.

"I'll get you a place at the King's Ring," Hugo gasps, straining against the ropes. "That'll shut you up."

Varian chuckles, feeling a rush of fondness for the man. "You're going to have to work a bit harder then, for both things."

He undoes the ropes carefully after Hugo comes, massaging the joints where they were held stiff by the knots. Varian doesn't usually- he doesn't really stay for the afterglow. It's a sort of intimacy he neither wants nor seeks. But as he undoes knot after knot and Hugo looks up at him with a blissful smile, Varian can almost lie to himself and pretend he's comfortable here. He even believes it, sometimes.

\--------------------------------------------------

"They're real aren't they?" Hugo asks, scratching softly at the white pendant with a nail. Varian doesn't turn to look at him as he seals the hole in the white wall with a foam that will harden in a few minutes, and hopefully take the color of the bricks around it. He'd say they were lucky no one has noticed it in the past few days, but it's only big enough to let Varian crawl through and purposefully hidden behind a bush. "How did you get them?"

Varian bites his lip.

Hugo is... he's good. Sure, he tricks rich travelers on their way to the higher rings, pickpockets and threatens and picks them clean of gold before escaping into the slums, but that's about the worst he's done. The main reason why he never made it to the Alabaster Ring himself is because he's frivolous enough to waste all the money he steals into immediate commodities. 

It's easy to kill two people and make it look like a coincidence. The first one slipped at the top of a staircase, the bricks suddenly covered in viscous, slippery liquid. The second ate something he shouldn't, and he collapsed alone at his table, clawing at his throat as it swole. The cemetery guard had a deep, long nap, and Rudigger in his bigger form made short work of the fresh graves.

"You don't want to know that," is all Varian says in the end. He's still not sure why he chose to steal two pendants, when a single one would've been much easier in all senses; a lone newcomer wouldn't cause as much suspicion as the two of them definitely will. "Is it how you imagined it?" Varian gestures to the Alabaster Ring's quiet, clean streets, the houses small but clean and well cared for, not a single pan handler leaning against their walls. 

Hugo gives him a strange look. The moon makes his green eyes look almost grey, and Varian doesn't know how to feel about the intensity of his gaze. Then Hugo leans forward and down, tilting his head lightly to place a soft, almost careful kiss on Varian's mouth.

"It's perfect," Hugo whispers against his lips, and Varian shivers. They've kissed before, multiple times, but this feels... There's no urgency, no underlying motive behind the gesture. No one is ripping his or the other's clothes off, Hugo is just... there. Sharing his breath with Varian so intimately he might as well be stealing it from his lungs, for how lightheaded Varian feels.

Rudigger makes a chittering noise somewhere around their feet, and Varian flinches back.

"We need to go."

Hugo nods, and his gaze is no longer the heavy light Varian doesn't know how to hide from. They stalk away like two criminals in the night, more sincere than they've ever been.

\--------------------------------------------------

"You're so beautiful," Hugo mutters against his chest, and Varian feels himself redden to the roots of his hair. He kicks viciously at Hugo's hip, and the man chuckles and sits back to look down at him. "You really are. I don't know why you hate it when I say it."

"I just do," Varian snaps back. It's not that he's never heard it before, much less while fucking, and he usually enjoys it as much as the act itself, preening under the attention and the compliments as quickly as he shivers under the pleasure of a touch. "Harder," he orders, tangling his legs together behind Hugo's hips.

It feels different, when Hugo says it. Not just like something you say when you're lost to pleasure. There's an undercurrent of admiration too, a wonder Varian is not sure what to do with, like Varian is more precious than the pure gold pendants he transmuted from a bar of lead.

The yellow brick wall is better guarded than the one around the Alabaster Ring, but Tenebras silenced the soldier soon enough. Tomorrow, they move up to where the real victims are. Varian is starting to fantasize about pulling a Flynn Ryder, and taking the king's crown if he leaves. _When_ he leaves.

"You're my lucky charm," Hugo grunts as he snaps his hips harder, Varian punctuating his words with senseless gasps. "You brought me here. I've spent years trying to get here, and you did it for me."

Something in Varian's stomach reels at that. He- he did this for himself. Hugo is- he's just useful to have around, because he knows the dynamics of the city.

He pointedly ignores the fact that Hugo had never set foot anywhere higher than the Coal Ring before Varian came along, and his 'knowledge' of the upper rings are little more than questionable rumours he could've found elsewhere.

\--------------------------------------------------

They've been here for four months already. Varian is starting to get itchy with inactivity, but when he mentioned his plan for sneaking them into the King's Ring, Hugo shot it down immediately. Apparently he wanted to do it himself, and set to creating a reputation as an inventor. It's much easier now that he doesn't have to steal to eat, now that they're surrounded by people frivolous enough to pay a man enough money to feed a family, in exchange for a machine that folds their coats for them. An 'indispensable article', they call it. Varian remembers why he despised that world. 

Luckily he doesn't have to interact much with Hugo's clients, and he spends his days taking leisurely walks, making connections and finding out more about their future destination. It's a very normal sort of boring that has Varian thinking back at the days of Old Corona, when all he had to do was work at his lab and enjoy himself.

Hugo props himself up on an elbow to look down at him. The quiet gardens at the Gold Ring are sprinkled here and there with families and couples enjoying the sunny day. Varian and Hugo have taken over a spot in the shade of a tall oak, and a basket of fruit and cheese and wine sits untouched next to them.

"You... you fit here, you know?" Hugo asks. Varian has a moment of speechlessness, because the sun behind Hugo turns his golden hair into a halp, and his eyes are a more vibrant green than the oak leaves above them.

"How- what do you mean?" Varian croaks out after a second. Hugo looks like an angel, and he has to remind himself that he's not, he's just another thief with delusions of grandeur, smart enough to trick rich imbeciles out of coin. 

"I know you're- I know you're not like them. You're like me, you've clawed your way up from the bottom," Hugo's knuckle is soft where it grazed against Varian's cheekbone, and Varian holds back a hysterical snort. "But this life suits you. Do you enjoy it?"

"Do you?"

Hugo laughs. "Do I enjoy watching you in your fine clothes, with your polite smiles, mingling with these imbeciles that don't realize you're a lion amongst sheep?" He leans down to press another one of those soft, uncanny kisses on the corner of Varian's lips. "Do I enjoy having you to myself?"

"You're just asking more questions, Hugo."

"I am, I suppose," Hugo shifts, bringing the forearm not supporting his weight to bracket the other side of Varian's head, looming over him in a way _just_ this side of decent, for the prudes at the Gold Ring. "I'm going to get us those diamond pendants. You'll see."

Varian feels his mouth dry. He's seen Hugo's inventions, his work and his ideas are impressive, especially for a self-taught street rat. He's got a brilliant mind in there, and it'll get him anywhere he wants to go, now that Varian had given him a means to start. 

"I know you will," Varian whispers, and he leans up to press a soft, uncanny kiss of his own against Hugo's lips.

\--------------------------------------------------

Varian lays awake in the middle of the night, eyes open and throat tight, his frame stiff against the soft silk sheets. Hugo, as usual, sleeps like a log beside him. 

It's only a fortnight until Caine's deadline. 

The high ceilings of their- of Hugo's house in the King's Ring are covered in hand-painted porcelain tiles forming a beautiful mosaic, and reflecting the light from the oil lamps outside. Varian climbs off the bed slowly, so as to not wake Hugo, and his steps are silent as they take him to the window. The skin of his chest prickles against the cold midnight air, and Avantion sleeps peacefully, unaware of the evil that has snaked into its very core. Hugo shifts on the bed, and Varian's knuckles tighten around the window frame. 

Rudigger coos, and Varian looks down to find the raccoon has left his pile of cushions to come sit at his feet. 

"...We could stay, you know?" Varian whispers so low he can barely hear it himself. Rudigger's ears twitch, and he tilts his head. "We- nobody knows what I've done here."

Nobody _ever_ has to know. He covered his tracks well when getting them into the Alabaster and Gold rings, no one suspects anything, not even Hugo. He could- they could become the King's inventor and his alchemist. Corona will never think of looking for him here, and he'd be in a position high enough to keep researching ways to rescue his father. He could start over. Everything he's done, all the crimes he has committed... it wouldn't matter anymore, would it? 

Varian turns to look at the man on the bed. Hugo's face is relaxed in his sleep, and he hugs his pillow like he's afraid it will escape. There's a pang of remorse in Varian's stomach. Hugo doesn't know the kind of monster he lives with; he has no idea of the coolness with which Varian takes lives, the ease with which he weighs their value against his own interests, and finds them unimportant. 

Hugo thinks Varian is like him, he realizes with a start, remembering that day at the gardens; just a bright kid born under the wrong stars, fighting for recognition in a world that can't be anything but unfair. He doesn't know Varian was born to wealth and authority, or how deeply Rapunzel's betrayal unhinged him. He doesn't know Varian would watch a city of innocents burn and not bat an eyelid.

"Your eyes are like the moon," Hugo's voice breaks the silence, and only then does Varian notice he's awake. "It's like they're glowing." His own eyes are glassy with sleep and his lips are curled in the faintest smile. 

Varian's chest hurts. "Don't be silly. Go back to sleep."

"Hm. Come here then." He extends a hand towards him. "Come on. It's cold."

It _is_ cold. 

Varian looks back at the windowsill, and has a brief flash of panic when he could swear his hands left bloody marks on the wood; evidence for all to see his crimes. For Hugo to realize who he is. Of course there's nothing there. Moonlight can play funny tricks on tired eyes.

"I'm going." Varian says, and his chest aches again at the declaration only he understands. 

"Mhm." Hugo is already half asleep again, when Varian tangles their fingers together and slides back into bed.

\--------------------------------------------------

Avantion is barely visible behind him, the only features that stand out at this distance are the black wall surrounding the Coal Ring and the silvery white of the king's palace as Varian rides away on his stolen horse.

He stole a lot of things before sneaking past the guards, each more valuable than the other. 

A sword with a jeweled grip, fit for the Captain of the guard. A prince's circlet, forged in the purest silver. A king's heavy rings, the crests of a dozen Noble houses carved into priceless gems. 

A diamond pendant earned through hard work, and a lock of golden hair.


End file.
